A Court of Flowers and Stars

Chapter 2

-Rhysand's POV-

Cassian was making Nyx do an extra lap of the mountain for picking a fight with one of the younger trainees. The male deserved it, which is why he was only doing one lap, but he still had to be punished in the eyes of the camp, and Feyre would go mental if I let Delvon give him any lashings.

I was sat having dinner with Cass and Az, waiting for him, when I felt him in my mind.

'Help,' was all he said before the line went dead.

I cursed as I stood, wings forming behind me.

"Rhys?" Cassian asked.

"Nyx just called for help then the line went dead, Az, you are with me, stick to the shadows, Cassian stay here, I'm just going for a night-time fly with my brother, ok?" I said in a rush, they both nodded, we all knew it was bad if Nyx had to ask for help.

We took off and flew the mountain track backwards. It wasn't long before I spotted him. I dove, seeing a girl straddling his chest, her dagger to his neck.

She looked up and terror flashed across her face, then surprise, before a mask of cold indifference fell into place. I shot for her mind, but I was met with a wall of flowers and a wicked wind.

I pulled back, unable to get through.

"Get off him," I snarled, clenching my hands into fists, she was dead.

Her shoulders slumped, the tang of terror filling the area as her grip on the dagger loosened. She slowly removed the dagger from Nyx's throat and rolled off him, standing.

I took her in properly now that Nyx's life wasn't in danger. She was young, no older than Nyx, her deep brown eyes never left me as she shifted from foot to foot. Something was wrong about all of this, and I didn't just mean that she tried to kill Nyx, an assassin wouldn't be acting like this. They would either be running or attacking, but she was just stood there.

The next thing I knew the dagger was flying for me, only it was aimed at my thigh. I caught it and looked back up at her in surprise, she hadn't tried to kill me, she was trying to incapacitate me. Something was definitely not right, and I knew I couldn't kill her, not until I learnt who she was and why she seemed so conflicted.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, maybe she would just give me a straight answer.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she looked like she would answer before she pressed her lips together and wrapped her arms around her middle. I sighed to myself; this was definitely something different to deal with.

I looked to Az who was tucked into a shadow.

'Knock her out, something about this seems off,' I said to his mind, and he nodded.

She must have noticed my glance because she started to turn, only Az was quicker, hitting her over the head with the hilt of Truth Teller.

She fell to her knees and the wind shifted, swirling around her, like a barrier.

"No, it's ok, just stay with me, please," she whispered to no one before she fell to the side, unconscious.

I ran to Nyx's side and saw that he was already looking up at me.

"Figured I should let you two deal with her as she seemed set on killing me." He said as I pulled him up.

"What the..." Az muttered, and I turned to look at him, his shadows were going everywhere, and the wind still surrounded her.

"What's happening?" Nyx asked, eyes wide.

"My shadows say the wind is annoyed with me for hurting it's mistress." Az replied, frowning.

"That makes zero sense," Nyx replied.

"Can you get to her?" I asked Az who tried to push his way through the barrier of wind once more, only to be pushed back again.

He then vanished into shadow and appeared crouched next to her. The wind stopped, seemingly defeated.

"Take her to the Hewn City, chain her in ash and check her suit for weapons, I'm taking no risks." I decided, and he nodded, lifting the girl up and vanishing once more.

"We should go and tell mum; she'll be mad of we don't." Nyx told me and I nodded.

'Cass, we're going back to Velaris for a bit, you ok here?' I asked.

'Everything ok?' He replied.

'A kid just tried to kill Nyx, we need to go and deal with it, and Feyre.' I said, I felt his concern then heard his laugh and rolled my eyes before cutting the connection.

I took Nyx's arm and winnowed us back to the manor, where Feyre and Mor were having a girl's night. Both look at us in surprise though Feyre's expression soon turned to concern when she saw the trail of blood running down Nyx's temple.

"I swear, if Cassian had anything to do with that, he is dead," she growled, walking over, and taking Nyx's face in her hands.

"For once, it had nothing to do with Uncle Cass," Nyx told her as she healed his head.

"Then what the hell happened; you wouldn't have come back if it was just a training injury." She said, turning to me.

"A girl tried to kill him." I said, waiting for her wrath.

"What!" She yelled; hands clenched.

"Relax Feyre, the kid is on the Hewn City with Az and no harm came to Nyx apart from that small wound on his temple." I said, she let out a breath.

"Sorry, I just worry about you all so much," she whispered.

"It's alright Feyre darling," I reassured, pulling her against me.

"Get a room," Mor groaned.

"You said before it was a kid, how old do you think?" She asked, pulling away.

"No older than Nyx, but something felt wrong when I got there, she seemed really conflicted, like she didn't want to kill him, but something was making her." I explained.

"What are you going to do?" She asked, frowning.

"Hopefully have a semi-civil conversation with her tomorrow, but I think Az is ready to shed some blood. I don't want to cause her pain if she was threatened into this. Hopefully she'll talk to me." I said, sighing.

"And you can't get into her head?" She pressed; I just shook my head.

"Come on, let's all go to bed, we can think about this more in the morning." Nyx cut in.

We all went upstairs, Mor staying by the fire with her bottle of wine. Though we tried, neither me nor Feyre got much sleep that night, we had eighteen years of peace, and now this was happening.